Spinning World

Joel Stewart 2007

Mixed media (intaglio print collage, watercolor, gouache on paper)
Edition of 5, plus 2 artist proofs
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About Spinning World

Printmaking and painting are endlessly fascinating to me. In over 30 years of doing both side by side it's not surprising that both mediums have steadily come to influence each other in my work. My interest in making paintings in series of repeated motifs, for example, stems at least in part from my joys at filling up the studio walls with multiple proofs when I am making prints. Conversely, instead of relying on the "one-color-per-plate" color separation approach common in printmaking, I like to incorporate blending colors directly on the plates so I can get a more immediate, painterly effect in my prints. And the list of such mutual influences goes on. This piece, Spinning World, however, represents the first time I have taken the conceptual approaches from both painting and printmaking, as well as the actual materials of both mediums, and combined them together literally and physically.

In simple terms, each work in the edition combines an original painting of flowers (weeping cherry blossoms) with a print depicting a portion of an Asian styled vase, together on a single sheet of paper. As there are 7 copies total, the painting portion of the image has been repeated seven times, and 7 prints* have been collaged directly onto the painting surfaces of each. The combination of painting and print together in a single work makes it simplest to classify this hybrid piece as "mixed media".

Origins

This series was sort of an "accident waiting to happen" in my studio: To begin with, the idea of making an "edition" of original paintings had intrigued me for some time. We have this romantic notion about originals being only single pieces existing in the world, while prints are done in multiples (and never the twain shall meet). Working in both painting and printmaking fields side by side the way I have, I think I eventually came to consider the line between the two more blurred than that. Sometimes I think the urge to repeat things can be as strong as the original impulse to create just one.

Thus Spinning World was already ripe to happen when one day I found a "chance meeting" between two separate images in the studio. I keep a folder stuffed with all kinds of photographs - clippings, photos I've taken, printouts of past artwork, anything that I want to have around as potential sources for something new. There is no order whatsoever in this folder. It's all just stuffed in there. When I opened the folder one day, the first thing I saw looking up at me was a clipping of the vase print lying on top of a photo of weeping cherry blossoms with a black background. The combination struck me for it's graphic strength and simplicity. Knowing that I had a few remaining trial proofs of the vase print got me to thinking about a multiple set, and the idea of repeating the cherry blossoms in painting slid right into the concept.

As far as the approach to painting the series goes, I made up my mind before starting that I essentially would repeat the same painting over seven times, without making a hugely conscious effort one way or another: either towards slavish copying nor towards emphasizing differences between the individual works. In the end the nature of painting with pigments and water had it's own inherent slipperiness. In order to get any satisfying result in painting, the focus must always be on what's happening right in front of me, more so than whether or not what I am doing "resembles" something else. Each flower can't help but start out a little differently, each following brush stroke thereafter is in response to what was laid down before it, so the imagery ultimately must become self-sufficient. Each detail, then, is different from one work to the next. Overall, however, I was able to keep the continuity of the pieces as a whole as well, so it worked both ways. Seeing several of these side by side, I am delighted to feel the power of the repeated motif, and stimulated to enjoy the individual differences.

Joel Stewart
April, 2007
Kyoto, Japan

* The prints are actually cropped portions of intaglio prints taken from a print edition I made several years ago. They are extra proofs which didn't make the original edition for one reason or another. They have been hand-colored for this piece.